Mount Rubidouxâs cross will stay where it is following an auction Thursday, April 11, that ended months of uncertainty and emotional debate over one of Riversideâs most recognizable landmarks.

Less than a minute after bidding started, Totally Mt. Rubidoux, a coalition of three local nonprofit groups, won the right to buy the 0.43-acre parcel for $10,500 â" just $500 above the minimum bid required. The city set the auction to avoid a legal battle over a religious symbol on public land.

Two bidders qualified for the auction outside Riverside City Hall, in front of a granite backdrop inscribed with a Benjamin Franklin quote extolling freedom of speech and thought.

The other bidder, owners of a Riverside aerospace components firm, also sought to preserve the cross. The three men behind Accuturn Corp. were a late entry into the bidding. The business owners filed papers and left a $10,000 deposit just ahead of the 3 p.m. Wednesday deadline.

Totally Mt. Rubidoux is well on its way to meeting its $300,000 fund-raising goal, said group representative Brian Jaramillo, who declined to give specifics. The rest of the money will be used for an endowment to cover liability insurance, future maintenance of the property and related costs.

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As the losing bidder, the Accuturn partnersâ $10,000 will be returned to them. Totally Mt. Rubidouxâs deposit will be applied to the purchase price. The sale becomes final after a 30-day escrow period.

Some Totally Mt. Rubidoux backers were concerned about the other bidderâs intentions. But Jaramillo said his group contacted the other bidder Wednesday afternoon and both sides agreed not to get into a bidding war.

â(Accuturnâs partners) are good, solid citizens and they wanted to do the right thing,â he said. âWe did this as a team of citizens in order to preserve what we have.â

QUICK AUCTION

Henri Rahmon, who owns Accuturn with Iggy Araujo and Mark Sayegh, said they were pleased with the outcome. Araujo has said his group didnât know there was another bidder seeking to keep the cross on Mt. Rubidoux.

Sayegh and Rahmon are Arab Christians who came from Israel, Rahmon said, adding that Araujo is a Christian who emigrated from Pakistan.

âWe believe in keeping the cross there,â Rahmon said. âAnd we believe in the values it represents.â

After reading terms and conditions for the auction, private auctioneer Emilio Lemeni started bidding as Jaramillo and Rahmon stood in front of him, holding slips of paper. An audience of about 50 silently watched.

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Rahmon submitted a $10,000 bid, which Jaramillo matched. Rahmon and his partners bowed out once Jaramillo went to $10,500. The audience cheered when bidding ended.

Many at the auction wore white T-shirts and waved signs supporting Totally Mt. Rubidoux, an alliance of the Mission Inn Foundation, Riverside Land Conservancy and Friends of Mt. Rubidoux.

Technically, the new owner could remove the cross if it wanted. But deed restrictions ban development and require the owner to keep the site open to the public.

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